No Excuses for Cultural Appropriation

By Asha W. '23

Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved Halloween. The unofficial neighborhood pumpkin carving contest my mom always won, the bucket of candy my dad would end up eating, I even liked how the cold would turn my nose red. But the thing I loved even more than the cold and the candy was dressing up. 

Costumes have become one of the most important and controversial aspects of Halloween. They have allowed people to dress up and exist as something entirely different; they provide a sense of wonder and excitement. But, as innocent and fun as costumes can be, some can also do a lot of damage. Costumes like “sexy Indian girl” and “Arab man” push damaging stereotypes of minorities and take away from thriving cultures. These outfits are not restricted to kids walking down the street on Halloween night. These kinds of outfits are worn by people in very high positions, from Justin Trudeau to Beyoncé, normalizing a disregard for important symbols in other cultures. In other words, those costumes are examples of cultural appropriation.  

So what is cultural appropriation? To put it plainly, cultural appropriation happens when a dominant culture takes parts of a minority culture without understanding its cultural importance. Wearing Bindis on your forehead or wearing a Native American headdress trivializes the meaning behind these powerful cultural symbols and robs them of their significance. These sorts of outfits are incredibly harmful and painful to the minority culture you’re taking from. Finally now, with the help of mainstream media, those voices are being heard. 

But are we listening? The conversation about cultural appropriation has only really been a part of mainstream media for the last ten or so years. It’s been around for centuries, but we only seem to talk about it when the calendar hits October 31. So, the question remains, why aren’t we talking about cultural appropriation more? 

Cultural appropriation happens every day worldwide, but we only focus on it when we make choices that affect ourselves. In itself, this is a step in the right direction, but change will only come when we start holding more people accountable. When well-liked people like Justin Trudeau and Beyoncé do something that crosses the line between appreciation and appropriation, we need to hold them responsible. Growth only happens after identifying a problem, and the world, especially right now, needs to grow. Because, if it doesn’t — if we don’t — then all of these conversations mean nothing.